We are a group of international clinicians focusing on upper limb absence rehabilitation. In order to achieve our vision, we aim to support and empower people worldwide by creating and updating an open access, easily understandable consensus resource based on evidence-based research and clinical experience.

Survey

One of the tasks of the handsmart group has been to determine best practices for how to treat children and adults with upper limb loss or limb absence, and we are compiling information towards that goal. Our first survey relates to children. We recognize that practices vary in different parts of the world, therefore, we have created a survey to try to capture those differences. When we have compiled the results from this survey, we will post information on the Handsmart website.

If you are a person who works with children with limb loss, please consider taking our survey.

Join the Network

Our mission is to support and empower people world-wide by creating and updating an open access, easily understandable consensus resource based on evidence, for those engaged in upper limb loss/difference rehabilitation.

Our Supporters

History:

The prosthetic company Ottobock hosted a meeting in Berlin, Germany, in February 2016 to start a worldwide initiative. The group now consists of 16 independent international experts consisting of 15 therapists (4 physical and 11 occupational therapists) and 1 prosthetist, from different parts of the world. The clinicians are all either independent practitioners or working with a company and specialized in upper limb absence rehabilitation, either in clinical or research settings. Discussions were facilitated by an independent moderator. Decisions were made based on voting and consensus agreements.

The international consortium of expert clinicians were united in the vision to provide the most holistic rehabilitation approach for every person with upper limb loss or upper limb difference, now and in the future. Based on this agreement the “handsmart group” was formed and further discussions took place.

The vision was reinforced by the mission which is to support and empower clinicians and patients worldwide by creating and updating an open access, easily understandable resource based on evidence, for those engaged in upper limb loss/difference rehabilitation. The consortium formed working groups to address our main objective, which is to provide an online platform for networking, sharing information, communicating and accessing resources for supporting clinical practice internationally.

Help us in our journey to share resources of upper limb absence worldwide!

Legal Information & Impressum

The handsmart group is an independent non-profit group of international clinicians working on a voluntary basis. Donations to the handsmart group are exempted from (U.S.) Federal Income Tax under IRS section 501 (c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Our Federal Tax ID is 82-1410543.